November in Review

November was a crazy, busy month that was packed with creativity and exploration. 
Here are the highlights from November:

A.H., her 5th grade friend, H.W. and B.W (not shown)  shared a very special nature discovery with us. The group discovered a Monarch Butterfly! They also shared an impressive nature binder that they have been working on. It is filled with feathers, nuts, leaves and bark. 

They graciously let us explore the binder for a few days. The students made many scientific sketches and digital representations of the items in the binder. 

We also spent time with the new books that we purchased from the Book Fair. 

In reading groups, we are working on categorizing and coding our learning while spending some time with some non-fiction texts. 

We also practiced answering questions with information from our text. 

November Writing Club was a huge success! More that 20 1st grade students (and a few grown-ups) attended!

The Global Read Aloud project ended for us this month. We were so excited to make a great connection with Mrs. Hogan's class and loved the amazing transportation project they sent us. It inspired us to design and make our own modes of transportation.

The modes of transportation theme carried over into last week's Creative Workshop. 

E. D. and A. J. chose to design and create a rocket ship using just paper and tape. 

A group of students used Google Earth as a resource to help with researching a writing topic. 

A.H. and B.W. created and began implementing a mail system for Room 222. We will be discussing that much more this week. 

Last but certainly not least, our blogs officially went public! We celebrated with a trip to the computer lab so that we could start commenting on all of the amazing blog posts.

December is upon us and I can't wait to see what the students in Room 222 will do next!

Veteran's Day at McDole Elementary School

*Teacher Note: This post was discussed and written by the students in Room 222.

Today is Veteran's Day in the United States of America. We are celebrating Veteran's Day at McDole. 

We started by sharing our thoughts on Today's Meet. 

P.E. brought in a picture of her Great Grandpa who was in the military.

Many McDole students brought in pictures of family members who served in the Armed Forces.

Then we went to the gym for our celebration. We had several Veterans join us. 

The 4th grade classes sang American songs for us. 

The Boy Scouts donated a very special flag for us. Our new flag once flew at the United States Capital Building!

It is a rainy day but that didn't stop our Boy Scouts from putting up our new flag. 

Stay tuned for more pictures of special event at McDole. Please check out our blog more often.

Happy Veteran's Day from Room 222 

Room 222's Pumpkin Investigation

Last week, Room 222 collaborated on team inquiry investigations. Each team was given an non-traditional pumpkin and given the week to explore it.

These collaborative teams worked together to brainstorm interesting words, make scientific sketches, estimate and accurately measure their pumpkin. 

All of their information was kept on each teams "data collection" poster. 

The teams reminded each other that scientific sketches should contain accurate details and labels to help our audience understand our thinking. 

Our teams were in charge of collecting measurements for height, weight and circumference. Once the estimations were made by each team member, the accurate measurement began. 

Measuring Height

Measuring Circumference

Measuring Weight

Once all of their observations were made and data was collected, it was time to share out their information. It is important to share our learning with others so they made teaching videos to share out their findings. 

Each team started by storyboarding their video. They discussed scientific vocabulary and correct sequencing needed for an effective video. 

Once the storyboards were finished, it was time to make the movie. However, we couldn't discuss the whole pumpkin without exploring all of it. So... we had to get a bit messy. 

Please enjoy Room 222's educational pumpkin videos:

My Movie 7 from LBright on Vimeo.

My Movie 7 from LBright on Vimeo.

My Movie 8 from LBright on Vimeo.

My Movie 11 from LBright on Vimeo.

Pumpkin Inquiry from LBright on Vimeo.

Pumpkin Inquiry from LBright on Vimeo.

I'm Here

Dear Mrs. Hogan's Class, 

We are so excited to connect with you again through The Global Read Aloud project. We are loving the Peter Reynold's author study. 

We finished the book I'm Here and can't wait to share our thoughts with you. 

After reading the book, we decided to think like Peter Reynolds and illustrate our powerful thoughts.

Then we decided to have a bit of fun with these illustrations and we decided to make them into paper airplanes. We worked really hard at following directions while watching the airplane video. 

We worked really hard on our airplanes. It would have been a shame not to fly them. So... we flew them. 

It was a great way to celebrate a beautiful Fall day in Illinois. 

Here are our reflections on I'm Here:

I'm Here from LBright on Vimeo.

So... Mrs. Hogan's class, 

Keep an eye on your mailbox. You might receive a fun package very soon. 

From, 

Room 222